News

The Sounds of Summer 2018

Our Fellows hit the road, skies and seas this summer to perform and teach around the globe. Read about some of their exciting adventures before their anticipated return to Miami Beach next week!

Evan Zegiel at Triple Falls in DuPont State Forest, near Brevard

Evan Zegiel, our new Tuba Fellow, has been busy this summer at Brevard Music Center (BMC), where he was a winner of the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition and performed with the Brevard orchestras for multiple concerts each week.

Before heading to BMC, he recorded some of his own compositions—click here to check them out! He has also been active with his duo, BrassTaps, which just released three new recordings of commissions from the last year.

Recent viola alumna Elizabeth Oka performed with the Kennedy Opera House in the Cuban Ballet’s productions of Giselle and Don Quixote. She shared Principal Viola duties with fellow NWS alumna Allison Goodman (2013-14). Elizabeth is now the Assistant Principal Viola of the Washington National Opera Orchestra.

Conducting Fellow Dean Whiteside is the winner of The American Prize in Conducting in the professional orchestra division. NWS alumnus Reuben Blundell(Violin, 2003-05) took second place in the community orchestra division for his work with the Chelsea and Lansdowne symphonies. The American Prize is a series of new, non-profit, competitions unique in scope and structure, designed to recognize and reward the best performing artists, ensembles and composers in the United States based on submitted recordings.

New Violin Fellow Michael Turkell and returning Violin Fellow Chelsea Sharpe traveled by ship as part of the Lincoln Center Stage for seven-day cruises from British Columbia to Alaska. Although they were on separate ships, they performed 16 concerts a week, each lasting 35-50 minutes and some of their own design. After the concerts, the musicians would greet audience members and at the end of the week they held a 30-minute Q&A session to round out the audience’s interactive classical music experience. When at port, Michael enjoyed exploring the national parks.

New Cello Fellow Chava Appiah joined Emerson Millar (violin, 2017-18), Erica Gailing (viola), Sam Pederson (viola) and Kevin Ritenauer (percussion) in Massachusetts at Tanglewood Music Center, where they rehearsed Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 with Herbert Blomstedt on his 91st birthday and performed Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben with Boston Symphony Music Director Andris Nelsons. Chava also attended the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. in Charleston, where she enjoyed collaborating with the Miami City Ballet and exploring the area’s historical architecture.